Shutdown (Glitch)

tell he was fighting to hold on a few more moments.
    “So you … forgive … me?” he gasped out, only a whisper.
    “Yes.” I nodded my head furiously. “I forgive you.”
    “I love you,” he said with his last breath, and then he stilled. The eyes that had been so full of life and always chasing after more were now horribly vacant.
    I crumpled, sobbing into his unmoving chest. I’d been so angry with him for so long. I’d hated him for the things he’d done. But he’d been telling the truth the last few months. He, like me, had been searching for redemption.
    And he’d come here. He hadn’t run away to save himself like we’d all assumed. He’d been practicing expanding his power so that he was totally and completely invisible to people with powers like mine … and the Chancellor’s. Her compulsion hinged on her ability to sense the minds of those near her. Max must have become so proficient that he could make himself invisible not only from sight, but also from mind.
    But even he couldn’t sneak through locked doors. He must have followed me in, but had to hang back. It was his decision to come here that had been the hinge of Adrien’s vision.
    I wiped my eyes, smearing Max’s blood on my cheek. He was my first friend, and I’d always felt he was part of my true family. That had never meant much to him; he’d always wanted more. But there were times when it had been everything to me.
    I sat back against the wall, exhausted and dizzy. For a second my telek blinked out and I could feel my throat start to swell shut. My eyes shot open again. It took me a few gasping moments before I managed to eke out a little more power to keep my mast cells intact. But my hold was wavering. I’d taken out enough of the Regs that they piled up in the doorway and for about ten more feet beyond. I couldn’t even imagine how Max had managed to sneak his way through them.
    I could feel other Regs pulling away the crumpled bodies, cutting their way through. I wouldn’t last much longer. I turned my eyes back toward my brother.
    “Markan,” I said. He still stood frozen where he’d fired the weapon. He hadn’t moved the entire time, he’d just watched everything with his face contorted in confusion. I waved him over. Halting, almost hesitating, he made his way toward me.
    “You don’t know how good it is to see that you’re safe.” More tears ran down my cheeks. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand up, so I dragged myself across the ground away from Max’s body toward Markan. “I’ve thought about you so much all year, wondering if you were okay. I’m sorry I didn’t come back for you. I should have, no matter what.”
    He stepped back and watched me like I was an animal about to bite him.
    “I won’t hurt you,” I said. I stopped crawling and rested my back against the wall. I probably looked terrifying crawling across the floor, covered in Max’s blood. And who knew what lies the Chancellor had filled his head with? Or maybe she hadn’t even bothered. Maybe she’d compelled him constantly, giving him no room to think for himself at all. It was more her style.
    After a few more seconds, he nodded and sat down beside me. I reached forward and hugged him hard with my good arm.
    The second I touched his skin, though, I yelped in surprise. The dim buzzing of my telek became instantly as loud as a howling screech. I expanded beyond the room, beyond the compound, and then for miles and miles around until I was reeling from the flood of information. I could feel the long coast stretching on in both directions, and the miles of trees and hills behind me that eventually became mountains. Then there were the cities full of people. So many souls squirming in bodies like ants in an ant pile.
    Markan pulled away abruptly and stood up. “You just want to use me like she did.”
    My heart beat rapidly at the shock of being encapsulated back in my body again. He backed away from me.
    “What was that?” I asked, astonished.
    “You don’t know?” He sounded cautious.
    I shook my head.
    “It’s my power.” He nodded toward the Chancellor with an infuriated look. “She called me an Amplifier. She kept me with her all the time. Always with her cold hand locked around my wrist.” He shuddered.
    I stared at him in astounded shock. So that was how she’d been able to compel my team from hundreds of miles away. And how she’d cracked so many Rez cells so quickly over the past few months.
    “It’s